Twilight is a series of books written by a woman, and with a heavily female fanbase. So who to pick to replace the female director of the first, hugely successful film in the series? A man, of course.

Chris Weitz, the director of successful movies (American Pie, About A Boy) as well as one gigantic flop (The Golden Compass), is rumored to be the likely successor to Catherine Hardwicke as the director of New Moon. Deadline Hollywood, which broke the news that Hardwicke had been ditched, is reporting that Summit is seriously considering Weitz for the job, especially since he and president of production Erik Feig are pals.

So you may not agree with me that Hardwicke was canned because she's a woman, and hell, that may not even be the case. But it is a particularly dumb PR move to replace Hardwicke with a man, especially for a franchise, like I said, with such a strong female fanbase. And it's a really dumb move to hand over the franchise to Weitz, who was given the His Dark Materials franchise and killed it with one fell swoop with the incomprehensible Golden Compass movie.

Come on Twilighters-- you've got to agree with me here. Complain about Hardwicke all you want, but is hiring a new guy who is a crony of the studio head really the way to take this franchise forward?